New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill said during a broadcast Tuesday night, Oct. 27, that the state's election system is secure. More than 5,000 noncitizens who were wrongly registered because of a 2023–2024 Motor Vehicle Commission software error have been removed from the rolls, and the investigation is continuing.
According to Gothamist, New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill said on "Ask Governor Sherrill," a resident Q&A program that aired Tuesday night, Oct. 27, that the state's election system is secure and ready for this election. Of the noncitizens registered because of the software problem, Sherrill said, "We've cleaned up everyone who was registered only because of that system problem." The program is produced by WNYC with WHYY and WBGO.
The error occurred from June 2023 to June 2024, during the tenure of former Gov. Phil Murphy. Up to 6,600 noncitizens who applied for a driver's license or ID at the state Motor Vehicle Commission (MVC) were wrongly registered to vote. They were registered even though they had answered in the MVC's automated system that they were not eligible to vote. Sherrill has said the problem was fixed in 2024, and on Oct. 27 she said she would work with a new vendor.
Sherrill has previously said that about 340 of these people actually voted in past elections. The governor's office said more than 5,000 have been removed from the rolls and that local election officials are investigating the rest. Earlier this month, it announced that 1,100 additional problematic registrations had been identified, and it pledged to make public any new findings as the investigation continues.
Republicans are citing the issue as grounds for concerns about voter fraud. Republican state legislators have called for an audit, a new voter ID requirement and a scaling back of the MVC's automatic voter registration program. Federal Republican lawmakers led by U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew sent the Sherrill administration a subpoena last week demanding related documents. A spokesperson for former Gov. Murphy denied claims that he knew about the problem, and the system vendor, IDEMIA, claimed that state agencies put people on the rolls without verifying their eligibility.
Voting has already begun in New Jersey. Mail-in ballots were sent out last month, and in-person early voting has been underway since last weekend. Sherrill's remarks came one week before midterm Election Day on Tuesday, Nov. 3.